'Ketamine Queen' accused of selling fatal dose to Matthew Perry agrees to plead guilty

Korea Herald

3 days ago

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman known as the "Ketamine Queen," charged with selling Matthew Perry the drug that killed him, agreed to plead guilty Monday.
Jasveen Sangha becomes the fifth and final defendant charged in the overdose death of the "Friends" star to strike a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, avoiding a trial that had been planned for September.
She agreed in a signed statement filed in court to plead guilty to five federal criminal charges, including providing the ketamine that led to Perry's death.
In a brief statement, Sangha's lawyer Mark Geragos said only, "She's taking responsibility for her actions."
Prosecutors had cast Sangha, a 42-year-old citizen of the US and the UK, as a prolific drug dealer who was known to her customers as the "Ketamine Queen," using the term often in press releases and court documents.
She agreed to plead guilty to one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, three counts of distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury.
The final plea deal came a year after federal prosecutors announced that five people had been charged in Perry's Oct. 28, 2023 death after a sweeping investigation.
Sangha admitted in the agreement to selling four vials of ketamine to another man, Cody McLaury, hours before he died from an overdose in 2019. McLaury had no relationship to Perry.
Prosecutors will drop three other counts related to the distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of methamphetamine that was unrelated to the Perry case.
Sangha will officially change her plea to guilty at an upcoming hearing, where sentencing will be scheduled, prosecutors said. She could get up to 45 years in prison. The judge is not bound to follow any terms of the plea agreement, but prosecutors said in the document that they will ask for less than the maximum.
She and Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who pleaded guilty last month, had been the primary targets of the investigation. Three other defendants — Dr. Mark Chavez, Kenneth Iwamasa and Erik Fleming — pleaded guilty in exchange for their cooperation, which included statements implicating Sangha and Plasencia.
Perry was found dead in his Los Angeles home by Iwamasa, his assistant. The medical examiner ruled that ketamine, typically used as a surgical anesthetic, was the primary cause of death.
Sangha presented a posh lifestyle on Instagram, with photos of herself with the rich and famous in cities around the globe. Prosecutors said she privately presented herself as a dealer who sold to the same kind of high-class customers.
Perry had been using ketamine through his regular doctor as a legal, but off-label, treatment for depression, which has become increasingly common. Perry, 54, sought more ketamine than his doctor would give him. He began getting it from Plasencia about a month before his death, then started getting still more from Sangha about two weeks before his death, prosecutors said.
Perry and Iwamasa found Sangha through Perry's friend Fleming. In their plea agreements, both men described the subsequent deals in detail.
Fleming messaged Iwamasa saying Sangha's ketamine was "unmarked but it's amazing," according to court documents. Fleming texted Iwamasa that she only deals "with high end and celebs. If it were not great stuff she'd lose her business."
With the two men acting as middlemen, Perry bought large amounts of ketamine from Sangha, including 25 vials for $6,000 in cash four days before his death. That purchase included the doses that killed Perry, prosecutors said.
On the day of Perry's death, Sangha told Fleming they should delete all the messages they had sent each other, according to her indictment.
Her home in North Hollywood, California, was raided in March 2024 by Drug Enforcement Administration agents who found large amounts of methamphetamines and ketamine, according to an affidavit from an agent. She has been held in federal custody for about a year.
None of the defendants has yet been sentenced.
Sangha also agreed in her plea deal not to contest the seizure of her property that went with the investigation, including more than $5,000 in cash.
Perry struggled with addiction for years, dating back to his time on "Friends," when he became one of the biggest stars of his generation as Chandler Bing. He starred alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004 on NBC's megahit series.